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Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) referral 008-03180010

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This page contains information about how to record and finalise a JCA referral.

Customer First

On this page:

Recording JCA referrals

JCA referral for formal review (AROs only)

JCA Referral for DSP New Claim – Pre checks

Completing a JCA referral for DSP new claim

Recording JCA referrals


Table 1

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Step

Action

1

Assess type of referral

If the JCA referral is:


JCA referral for formal review (AROs only)


Table 2

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Step

Action

1

New JCA required for formal review

An ARO may request a new JCA for a review of decision for:

  • cancellation of DSP for a medical reason
  • rejection of a DSP claim

2

Checks to be done before referring for a JCA

Before requesting a JCA Referral for a DSP Appeal

3

JCA referral Fast Note

Run the relevant Fast Note in Customer First- select Auto Text, use Disabilities > Claims > select the relevant JCA format:

  • JCA referral required post MAT - F2F
  • JCA referral required post MAT - File assessment
  • JCA referral required post MAT - Phone assessment

Add/amend the Fast Note text as follows:

  • ARO determined DSP JCA referral required
  • Reason code: DSPA (Appeal)
  • Referral Reason: DSP appeal including ODM & ARO
  • Referral business line: Appeals Branch
  • Date of DSP claim: enter date of claim or DSP cancellation
  • Has the customer resided in Australia for 10 years or do they have a Qualifying Residence Exemption (QRE)? Yes or No
  • Previous ESAt/JCA has a finalised status? Yes
  • Discipline: Determine assessor discipline i.e. Physical/Non-Physical
  • Specialist Referral/Assessment required: Yes or No
  • Special Needs: If applicable
  • Rationale: See Appeal DOC

Note: Fast Note must appear as an open DOC on Activity List (AL).

4

Assessment Services submit JCA

Assessment Services will book a DSP Appeal JCA appointment.

An Assessor will consider the original decision and any additional medical evidence and submit a new JCA report.

When the JCA report is submitted, the report must be checked and accepted, see the DSP medical based cancellation or claim rejection decision table in Reviews by an Authorised Review Officer (ARO)

Note: DSP cannot be granted without a Disability Medical Assessment (DMA) excluding manifest cases. DMA is not required where an ARO sets aside or varies a DSP cancellation due to manual medical review. See the DSP medical based cancellation or claim rejection decision table in Reviews by an Authorised Review Officer (ARO).


JCA Referral for DSP New Claim – Pre checks


Table 3

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Step

Action

1

Check the MAt report/SA479 has been completed

Check Document Tools for the Disability Support Pension Medical Eligibility Assessment Recommendation (SA479) and/or a DOC with a subject line of 'MAT DSP recommendation'.

Confirm the recommendation supports the completion of a JCA referral to determine medical eligibility.

Note: a recommendation template is not completed in all circumstances. For example, where no medical evidence is lodged with the claim, the Assessor will complete a Fast Note and not upload a recommendation template. See Streaming a new claim for Disability Support Pension (DSP).

If the Assessor has not completed MAt report/SA479 and one is required:

  • Create an open work item using
    • Fast Note - select Auto text, use Disabilities > Claims > DSP MAt Recommendation Query
    • Select Option 4: DSP New Claim lodged, No MAt assessment Completed within the text (for example, if DSP recommendation DOC is present on Document List (DL) but MAt report/SA479 has not been uploaded to the record). Manually add this information into the Fast Note
  • Manually hold the DSP new claim activity for 42 days
  • Procedure ends until the assessment has been completed and a MAt report/SA479 is available. See Streaming a new claim for DSP

2

Checks to be done before referring for a JCA

Before requesting a JCA Referral for a DSP New claim:

  • Check if the customer is clearly ineligible on non-medical criteria. A full assessment of non-medical eligibility is not required prior to JCA referral, but if it is clear the customer is ineligible for DSP, for example, customer is over Age Pension age, Income & Assets are over threshold or customer has a Compensation Preclusion Period which does not end within 13 weeks, do not refer for a JCA
    Note: the MAT Recommendation DOC may indicate 'Assess non-medical eligibility before referring for a JCA', this note can be disregarded. For more information see Rejecting a new claim for DSP.
  • If the customer is in receipt of JSP or YAL-JSK and is not a New Zealand non-protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder, check the Claiming DSP exemption has been automatically applied for 104 weeks on the Activity & Exemption (AEX) screen. See Jobseeker Payment (JSP) and Youth Allowance (YA) (Provisional)
  • Check the DSP claim start date (PNA) is correct and does not require updating due to backdating or early claim provisions. See Streaming a new claim for DSP for more information
  • Check the customer's residence status. See Residence assessment for customers claiming DSP:
    • If the customer is a non-protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder, the customer does not satisfy the residence requirements for DSP, but may qualify under an International Agreement. Do not refer for a JCA. Re-categorise the DSP claim to a Centrelink International Services new claim work item, complete any supporting work items and make sure the claim is not on hold. See Residence assessment for customers claiming DSP for details of new claim work item
    • If the customer is an Australian resident with less than 10 years Australian residence and no Qualifying residence exemption (QRE), an assessment of where the customer's CITW occurred is required as part of the JCA. Ensure this is correctly answered in the JCA referral

3

Make sure medical evidence is scanned

Make sure all medical and other relevant information has been scanned and added to the electronic MIFE (eMIFE). Reclassify if scanned incorrectly.

To view eMIFE information, select Document Tools under Quick Links in Customer First.

If documents are scanned incorrectly and need to be separated or reclassified:

Has all available medical evidence been scanned?

4

Do not proceed with JCA referral

A JCA referral must not be made until all available medical information and the MAt report/SA479 has been scanned and attached to the eMIFE.

If the referral relates to a Disability Support Pension (DSP) new claim, see Streaming a new Claim for DSP

5

Check contact details

Service Officer must check the claim details and the customer's record to ensure all contact details are correct. This includes checking the customer's interpreter requirements are correctly recorded and the Nominee (if applicable).

If there are changes to the customer's contact details, these must be updated prior to the JCA Referral request. See Updating address details for assistance with the following:

  • Address (AD)
  • Accommodation details (AC)
  • Phone (!TCD)
  • Email address (EMA)
  • Other Contact Details (OCD) - this field must have confirmed data otherwise the JCA referral request will require rework

For DSP claims, an ADS/ACS update is not required where there has been no change of address and/or accommodation details. Where rent has not been verified in the last 12 months, this can be updated, as required, when the claim is finalised.

Where the change in contact details is advised in a DSP claim, complete the updates within the claim activity and finalise via Selective Application of Data (SAD).

Where changes are updated by the Change in Contact Details Workflow, document as per the requirements.

6

Job seeker status

Check the Job Seeker Registration screen.

Does the customer have an active jobseeker registration?

7

Status of previous JCA or ESAt referrals

An ESAt/JCA report should automatically finalise 28 days after acceptance. During this time a new JCA referral for a DSP claim cannot be actioned, unless the ESAt/JCA report is finalised early – this action is referred to as an 'early finalisation.'

Any previous JCA or Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) referrals must have a status of Finalised or Unable To Complete before a new JCA referral can be recorded.

Check if the previous ESAt/JCA report has been accepted

An ESAt/JCA will not show a status of 'accepted.'

Accepted ESAt/JCA reports retain the status of Submitted until the system runs the finalisation process and the status changes to Finalised.

To check if a report has been accepted:

Customer First

Check if the report has been accepted

  • Type MCSS in the Next: field and enter
  • On the Medical Conditions Summary Screen (MCSS), locate the ESA or JCA under the Channel column
  • Click on the Event Date hyperlink relevant to the ESA/JCA Channel line
  • On the Medical Conditions Details (MC) screen under the Assigning Professional Details section on the right is an Acceptance Date: field

Check if report has a Finalised status

The status can be found on the ESAt/JCA View Referral screen which is accessed via the following in Customer First:

  • type RRSUM in the Next: field and enter
  • Look under the Programme column for Job Capacity Assessment or Employment Services Assessment
  • Event column will show the status

Where the previous ESAt/JCA report has a status of Unable to Complete

No further action is required on the previous ESAt/JCA report, a new JCA Referral request can be actioned, go to Step 9.

Where the previous ESAt/JCA report has not been accepted

Where an ESAt has been attended, and not yet submitted or DSP Appeal JCA is in progress, refer to Streaming a new claim for Disability Support Pension (DSP) for action required.

Where neither of the above is applicable to the previous unaccepted ESAt/JCA report, see:

Where the previous ESAt/JCA report has been accepted but the status is not showing as Finalised

Early finalisation of an ESAt/JCA report is unable to be completed in Customer First. To action the early finalisation in Process Direct, see Table 1 > Step 8 on the Process Direct subtab.

Once all previous ESAt/JCA reports have a Finalised or Unable to Complete status, check if new medical evidence has been lodged.

Has new medical evidence been lodged?

8

New medical evidence indicates potential manifest medical eligibility

Annotate the DSP claim progress DOC with 'Medical evidence lodged containing new information. Assessment by MAt required'.

Create a MAt referral:

  • Return to the Activity List (AL) screen
  • Create a Fast Note
    • select Auto text, use Disabilities > Claims > Priority- Possible Terminal lodged
    • select Confirm
  • This will create a Fast Note transaction. It will show as the highest work priority for the Assessment Services Assessor
  • Procedure ends here

Completing a JCA referral for DSP new claim


Table 4

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Step

Action

1

Information required in the JCA Referral request

Service Officers need the following information to insert/answer the questions within the JCA Referral request.

Date of Claim

Ensure the correct DSP Claim Assessment Date (PNA date) is entered so the correct version of the Impairment Tables is used. See Impairment Tables - start date scenarios.

Residence

Question 'Has the customer resided in Australia for 10 years or do they have a QRE'

Refer to the Disability Support Pension Residency Screens Checklist (on Resources page of Streaming a new claim for Disability Support Pension (DSP)) and the Resources page of Residence assessment for customers claiming Disability Support Pension (DSP) to answer this question correctly.

A person has a Qualifying Residence Exemption (QRE) for DSP if the person:

To ensure the correct assessment is undertaken and to avoid unnecessary rework:

  • If the customer does not have 10 years residence or, does not have a Qualifying Residence Exemption (QRE), select No
  • If customer has 10 years residence or, has a Qualifying Residence Exemption (QRE), select Yes

2

Run Fast Note

Run the relevant Fast Note - select Auto Text, use Disabilities > Claims > select one of the following templates (based on the mode of the JCA recommendation by the MAt):

  • JCA referral required post MAT - F2F
  • JCA referral required post MAT - File assessment
  • JCA referral required post MAT - Phone assessment

Make sure all details in the Fast Note are completed correctly:

  • Date of claim: enter DSP claim start date/PNA date
  • Residency: review customer details and advise if they meet 10 years residency or have a Qualifying Residence Exemption (QRE) (this ensures the assessor determines where the Continuing Inability to Work (CITW) occurred). Make sure this field contains one word: Yes or No
  • Discipline: review and advise if the primary medical condition, as outlined in the MAt report/SA479 is Physical or Non-Physical in nature. Make sure this field contains one word: Physical or Non-Physical
  • Specialist Referral/Assessment required: Yes/No (if Yes, include the type of specialist assessment required)
  • Special Needs: if applicable
  • Add any additional information or special needs in the dialogue boxes if required. For example, interpreter required, potential violent behaviour, gender preference of JCA Assessor

Note: the Fast Note will stream the referral directly to the JCA Admin Team, bypassing the Assessment Services Triage Team. This process will not happen immediately and may take several hours to move from the Service Officer's region code to the JCA Admin Team. Make sure only these Fast Notes are used.

If incorrect details have been entered in the JCA referral Fast Note check the Referral Summary (RRSUM) to see if JCA has been booked.

Check the Referral Summary (RRSUM) to see is JCA has been booked

Where the JCA is not booked:

  • annotate the Fast Note to advise the information is incorrect and set as completed
  • create a new JCA referral Fast Note with the correct information.

Where the JCA has already been booked:

  • apply Hold to User (HTU) to the DSP Claim
  • stream the claim and hold for reason JCA
  • annotate the DSP Claim Progress DOC to advise JCA Referral was incorrect
  • email the Assessment Services Customer Support Team (ASCST) to advise the JCA Referral DOC contained incorrect information
  • provide the correct details and request the JCA is:
    • finalised as Unable to Complete (UTC), and
    • rebooked with the correct information
  • end HTU when the JCA is re-booked